


the freckles on your arm they were a body of stars in the sky

by TheGodWith5Yen



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Bisexual Male Character, Canon Gay Character, Crushes, Dancing, Disabled Character, Dorks in Love, Friendship/Love, M/M, Pining, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25074925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGodWith5Yen/pseuds/TheGodWith5Yen
Summary: Nico was his friend who would listen when Leo spoke to no end and never seemed annoyed or like he was ready to leave whenever Leo went on too long. He would just rest his chin on his knees and listen and ask questions now and then and give Leo one of those small smiles of his that made Leo’s chest feel all light, buoyant enough that it sparked flames along the tips of his ears and nose. Nico’s smiles were just plain nice. And sparsely given out to anyone. His lips turned up and Leo could just make out a dimple on his left cheek and his face softened up from the scowl that was usually on his face. It was—cute. Yeah. Cute.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Leo Valdez
Comments: 17
Kudos: 109





	the freckles on your arm they were a body of stars in the sky

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DisabledNicoDiAngelo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisabledNicoDiAngelo/gifts).



> This is for Urs since he's the one who got me thinking about these two <333 ily and thank you for your kind words <333
> 
> title from "Little Flaws" by Lady Lamb

Their feet tripped over each other with each movement; they were unsure and stepping along in a new territory that they had never thought they would cross before. Because sure, once Leo had begun to know the guy, he realized that Nico di Angelo was actually pretty damned  _ cool _ once he let himself open up. He was still a bit quiet and moody for most of the time but Leo figured out that was just how he was. Until someone brought up something he loved—the weird card game that Leo still wasn’t sure how to play but stumbled through while sitting crossed-legged in Cabin Thirteen with blankets thrown over their shoulders because the damned stone building was  _ freezing as hell _ which might have just been the point in it all but this-was-a-summer-camp-Chiron, bugs but much more specifically beetles and like snails which apparently were  _ not  _ bugs, and, what was most surprising out of everything, sewing. 

Over the past few months, Leo had learned more and more about Nico di Angelo, the child of Hades that for so long other kids at the camp gave a wide berth to. He had gathered up Nico’s hair, a deep rich black that was coarse and curled up at the ends, and tied it up with a  _ liga _ or had pushed hair pins and clips that some of Piper’s little siblings had gave to Leo as gifts to keep his hair out of his eyes while working whenever they came into the Hephaestus cabin on Piper’s heels like little ducklings. Leo had been one of the first that Nico had explained the constant pain that he was in, which had inspired Leo to draw up designs for canes for the guy. Nico had even opened up and had spoken about his sister—Bianca, not Hazel—and his mother and about his life growing up in the early nineteen-hundreds because Percy Jackson and company had conveniently skipped over the fact that Nico, like Hazel, was from a completely different time period.

Children of the god of the underworld, right? Whole other level than Leo knew how to comprehend. 

Anyways. 

Nico, well. Nico was his friend who would listen when Leo spoke to no end and never seemed annoyed or like he was ready to leave whenever Leo went on too long. He would just rest his chin on his knees and listen and ask questions now and then and give Leo one of those small smiles of his that made Leo’s chest feel all light, buoyant enough that it sparked flames along the tips of his ears and nose. Nico’s smiles were just plain  _ nice _ . And sparsely given out to anyone. His lips turned up and Leo could just make out a dimple on his left cheek and his face softened up from the scowl that was usually on his face. It was—cute. Yeah. Cute. It was a really cute smile and Leo had made it a point to joke and try and get Nico di Angelo, prince of the underworld, to smile like that even more.

So yeah, it took awhile for Leo to even clue in on his own dumb, big feelings for Nico. It was still a little hard to admit it to himself—he had a crush on Nico. He had a crush. On Nico. The Ghost King himself. Prince of the underworld. The guy who still bought Happy Meals despite the small portions that Leo insisted were  _ not  _ enough for a growing boy his age (“C’mon  _ rey esqueleto _ , at least take some of my fries, a six piece chicken mcnuggets is  _ not  _ enough for anyone”) just because he wanted whatever toy option was available. The guy who would take Leo to a town close to the camp via shadow travel—or the occasional bus drive when Leo could tell that he was too exhausted to even try—just so they could hit up the local antique shops and Nico would point out what was cool when he was a kid (and Leo wasn’t exactly into antique shops or anything, but Nico liked them and they would always end up playing around with those old rotary phones and finding excuses to put on old women’s coats that fit them way too large but Leo couldn’t help but think Nico looked handsome in those long black jackets or faux fur coats and hats). The guy who would lay in the middle of camp with his sword on one side and big old Mrs. O’Leary curled up next to him on the other. The guy who made Leo happy and who Leo wanted to make happy in return. 

And here they were. Taking a step forward with awkward movements. 

Nico’s cane was set aside on the sand, where Leo had laid out a thick warm blanket with contraband snacks he had paid good money for from the Stoll brothers. “My pain isn't bad today. Just a little ache,” Nico had said with a shrug as he stood up and tugged that brown jacket of his close to his body before holding out a hand with a small smile. “Pretty impressive that you got it to work.” And Leo had grinned at him as he took Nico’s hand, smaller than his own with long knobbly pale fingers, and let Nico lead him in a dance. Wasn’t the taller one supposed to lead? Is that how dancing worked? When Leo voiced that thought aloud, Nico only rolled his eyes and chuckled softly as he stepped forward and backwards and to the side and they tried their best not to step on his other. Still, they bumped into one another, their chests colliding, Nico’s breath warm and close to his neck as they chuckled and moved back and tried again.

The music was shitty and staticky, from a prototype speaker Leo was trying out that could actually work on camp grounds. All other attempts had failed, but Leo had gotten this running, even though it seemed like all it could play is old swing music. 

“Is this kind of music from your era? Or do you prefer something else?” Leo asked as they stopped dancing, their breath a little heavy, and Nico clutching onto Leo’s arm as they moved back to the blanket. They had come here to see if the radio was going to work and had decided to make a small picnic of it. It felt like a date. Leo wanted this to be a date. He bit his lip as he sat down and grabbed a bag of sour gummy worms to take his mind off of it. Sure, sure, there was  _ something _ there, but Leo was pretty sure Nico was into Will Solace, who was all kind smiles and blonde hair and a personality that made him easy to talk to. Nothing like Leo. 

“It would come onto the radio now and again. My mom would grab us—me and Bianca—and get us to dance with her in the kitchen.” Nico shrugged his shoulders, his eyes far away before they came back again and made eye contact with Leo. “I do like modern music better though.”

“What kind?” Leo asked as he held out a handful of sour gummy worms to Nico, who took one and bit at the orange half of it as he thought. The slight evening wind made Nico’s long hair sway along his pale cheeks, like some kind of dark ocean against rocks or something. Okay analogies weren’t Leo’s  _ thing _ but it was a nice thing to see as Nico looked so calm with himself. 

Nico’s nose scrunched up and Leo stuffed a bunch of gummy worms in his mouth to keep down the sudden urge to reach out and trace the long slope of the other boy's nose. Good gods. “Paramore.”

“Paramore?” Leo said through his mouthful of gummy worms. Oh fuck was that gross? Was he being gross in front of his crush? Nico’s lips turned up in a smile and a small laugh escaped his lips, but Leo felt a sudden embarrassment cause his face to flush and a small flame to ignite along the tip of his tongue that he quickly tamped down. He quickly swallowed and kept on talking, hoping beyond hope that he could get past the moment. “Good choice, definitely a band that made points. All their songs? Classics. Love them. Every music made before them  _ wishes  _ they have what Hayley Williams could dish out and that is straight facts, all those Beatles guys are weeping because nothing they could ever have done could come close to the magnificence to the beauty of Paramore. Nothing!”

“Beatles?” Nico asked as he bit into another gummy worm. “Is that a band? I don’t think I’ve heard of them.”

“The Beatles is a dad band that basically started up the craze for boy bands. Dark times that, really, you should be happy you did not have to go through. Nothing like those cool little bugs you like. Damn, imagine a band that is just made up of big ass beetles that like shred the guitar and sing in harmony. Jeez, I wish that’s what the Beatles were; it would have made music progress by about twenty years  _ alone _ .” Leo grinned at the sudden mental image of ladybugs—probably like that one ladybug from A Bug’s Life, deep voice and playing like the violin or something Leo didn’t really know anything about music in all honesty—and hercules beetles and those shiny green beetles that scared the life out of Leo everytime they buzzed passed his face, all of them just playing in a band and rocking out. Okay, that would be something Leo would be interested in. Honest to the gods. 

Nico snorted. His pale hands moved to clutch his jacket closer to himself when a sudden breeze, colder than the others, blew past them. “A band made up of beetles would be the only acceptable thing in any case.” He shivered as he spoke. 

Leo bit his bottom lip as he watched how Nico held himself. There had been something earlier, something that Leo had been so sure of—that he wanted, that he thought he could have, maybe, made possible if he wasn’t such a coward—but he didn’t want to push Nico. Plus. Plus, plus, plus, there were so many reasons that Leo was just  _ wrong _ . That there was nothing more despite what he thought. There was no reason for Nico to even  _ like _ Leo. Nobody did. Not like that. They barely tolerated him as a friend. Still. Still. 

“Are you cold?” Leo asked quietly as he glanced down at his hands. There were bright pink Hello Kitty bandaids that one of his sisters kept in the first-aid kit in the cabin that were wrapped around a few of his fingers from a mild explosion that had resulted in a few shards cutting up his hands. It wasn’t anything too bad, but it wasn’t like Leo could just stuff his mouth with ambrosia for every little cut and scrape. As much as he would like to. “You know I’m hot.” Nico’s eyes went wide and he glanced at Leo with his mouth half open, as though he wasn’t sure what to say in response and that made Leo feel  _ way  _ more nervous than he was, his mouth suddenly moving and saying words he couldn’t fully comprehend oh gods. “Not like I’m hot, I’m not hot like good looking, or, well, I’m self confident enough with myself to think I am handsome or whatever but. I just mean. I’m warm. I’m fire.” What was that? Leo had half a mind to just pray out loud for Zeus to strike him with lightning and end his misery because again:  _ what was that _ ? 

Nico laughed, warm and low, and shifted closer to Leo. “You  _ are  _ fire.” A pause as he settled close to Leo, his shoulder touching Leo’s, his hand only an inch away from Leo’s. A breath, shaky and audible. And somehow Leo could feel it in his bones, feel the moment that  _ this _ was the step forward. Because Nico turned to him, so close, so handsome with a smile on his face that showed his dimple and even his crooked bottom teeth and the little gap between his front teeth that Leo had only saw with his two eyes a few times beforehand because Nico was always so shy about his teeth and his smile, always ducking down and out of sight. He had nothing to be shy about. Nothing. 

“You are handsome, you know. Handsome hot.” Nico said, his face slowly turning pink, his cheeks and his nose and even his ears and Leo couldn’t help but grin, wild and large, and he could feel as his nose and tips of his ears sparked up as they sat side by side. There would be more to be said—and Leo  _ would _ say something he knew he would, it was against his very nature  _ not _ to. But. But Leo tamped down the flames that grew on him and let himself drop his head onto Nico’s shoulder. Nico’s hand moved, slowly, slowly, a rough caress of calloused skin on Leo’s knuckles before Nico turned his hand over and twined their fingers together as they stared out at the waves of the water against the sun, the crappy radio playing static-filled swing music, the moment moving slowly for them as they toed over the line of friendship into something bigger, fuller, happier. 

**Author's Note:**

> I used a little Spanish so:  
> liga- rubberband/ponytail holder/whatever you call it  
> rey esqueleto- skeleton king
> 
> This was nice to write so I hope you guys enjoyed <3 leave a comment and a kudos if you did <3


End file.
